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Municipality wants to turn Amman into green city by 2020

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) on Saturday said it is working to turn the capital into a green city by 2020.

In a statement sent to The Jordan Times, Amman Mayor Aqel Biltaji said GAM will launch new projects and open public parks to expand green spaces in the city.

Emad Dabbas, the rapporteur of the “Amman is a green city” committee, said the working plan stretches over several phases.

“First, we will start collecting data from past studies related to the parks that were already built in the capital. We will also continue studies that have been completed so we can first document the projects we already have,” he told The Jordan Times over the phone on Saturday.

Dabbas, who is also an architect, noted that the committee will conduct studies targeting main and side streets and the traffic situation in preparation for the project.

“We first want to rehabilitate the gate of Amman, which is the airport road, by planting a number of trees and landscaping the highway to beautify it for our visitors,” he added.

Dabbas said GAM will start planting trees in some areas in Amman in the next five years and begin work to construct new parks.

There are a total of 145 public parks in 22 areas in Amman, according to the official.

“The private sector, including banks and big companies, will also take part in the project out of their social responsibility towards their city,” he added.

The project will be unveiled on March 21, according to Dabbas.

“The budget allocated for the project will be revealed in March after the announcement of the results but the amount of money earmarked for rehabilitating parks and green projects this year is JD4 million.”